Opinion Badminton is not cricket

With widely respected veteran journalist,S Nihal Singh,resigning shortly after being elected president of the India chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA),the funding and control of the NGO, which is an associate body of SAARC,has come in for questioning. The soft spoken Singh appears to have been provoked when he discovered that long time secretary general of the Pakistani chapter,Imtiaz Alam,calls the shots and the Indian president has little say. The funding for SAFMA originates mainly from Norway and Denmark and is routed through Alam. The objective of SAFMA,which is headquartered in Pakistan,is to work at strengthening Indo-Pakistan ties through the media,though some journalists see it simply as an opportunity to visit neighbouring countries free of cost. Unlike the Indian chapter,which had had three changes of guard since its inception,Alam,a well known human rights activist,has remained secretary general of the Pakistani chapter since it was founded more than a decade ago.

Idol Talk

An NRI sought Subramanian Swamy’s help in getting the British government to hand over an old idol of the goddess Saraswati,which is now in the British Museum. Swamy has some expertise on the subject. During his brief period as law minister he initiated the process for the return of the priceless Nataraja idol stolen from Tamil Nadu and eventually sold to the Getty foundation. Reclaiming the Saraswati may not be as simple as getting back the Nataraja,which was seized by the British authorities while it was in transit to the US. The law in the UK stipulates that trustees of the country’s five top museums do not have the power to dispose of any historic artifact,which forms part of the museum’s collection. The Greeks,after all,have been demanding back the Elgin marbles for over 200 years without success,nor have we made any progress in retrieving the Amravati stupa.

Power shift

The Congress-led government has clipped the wings of Sharad Pawar’s lieutenant,Praful Patel. The Civil Aviation Minister was not consulted on the appointment of Air India board members and the selection of Arvind Jhadav as chairperson of the airlines. Jhadav does not report to his minister but liaises directly with cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar. A few months ago,a committee of secretaries was set up to oversee the national airline,giving the minister little say in its management.

Key man

One man who probably knows more about every aspect of the Bhopal gas tragedy than anyone else is Shyamal Ghosh,who was joint secretary,Department of Chemicals and Petroleum,when the leak occurred. Ghosh was the key official whom everyone in the government consulted. His services were so invaluable that he continued in the same post for eight years instead of a maximum of five years. In fact,he was referred to jokingly in the corridors of power as the secretary of Bhopal. After two extensions,the personnel department finally posted Ghosh to his home state and a farewell party was hosted in his honour. But his transfer orders were overturned after the Attorney General protested that his presence in Delhi was essential. Surprisingly,the TV channels who have collared all and sundry connected with the case,do not seem to have spoken to Ghosh.